View Single Post
  #15  
Old 03-19-2018, 02:46 AM
epicfail48 epicfail48 is offline
Enthusiast
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Springfield Mo
Posts: 95
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gblack View Post
Yes, it was at Janet’s Supply. PVC or Steel? I can weld up a steel tank. I thought about making one just for edge quenching too.

I do already have a few magnets laying around. By shadowy areas, I’m assuming that means delamination, cold shuts and such?
Steel, always always steel, never, ever use PVC for a quench tank. When dealing with a 1500f piece of steel and a few gallons of 120f oil thats possibly on fire, the last thing you want is to melt through your container. Steel or other durable metal, with as large a capacity as is feasible. Starting out i used a stock pot filled with 2 or 3 gallons of canola oil, the large capacity led to minimal temperature change in the oil with repeated quenches, and the size handled the smaller (8 inch OAL) blades i regularly do.

Shadowy areas in the steel is really hard to describe, when bringing steel to temperature theres actually a very subtle shadow that move across the blade as it hits the proper temperature. Personally, i like the magnet test; keep a magnet near your heat source and touch the blade to it, once the blade stops being attracted to the magnet, give it a touch longer in the heat, make sure the color over the blade is uniform, then move to the quench. Easy peasy!

Theres a whole lot to learn about heat treatment, but dont let it intimidate you, its easier to learn than youd think. Really it boils down to "heat, dunk, less heat". Its like baking, follow the recipe and youll be fine, and luckily most places that sell the steel also have pretty comprehensive heat treatment instructions. On that note, thats another reason im fond of 1084, its really hard to screw up the heat treatment on, even with the most sub-optimal setup possible, everything will still go pretty smoothly. You could dig a hole in your back yard, toss in some dollar store charcoal, light the fire up with a stolen hotel hair dryer, quench the blade in a bucket of used motor oil and temper it over the hobo fire and youll still end up with a good blade!

Oh, and if youre looking for sources, i like these guys;
http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/

Fantastic to buy from, and good prices, and the quality of the steel is fantastic
Reply With Quote